Dr. Maneesh Mailankot, Associate Professor & Scientist, from Department of Biochemistry, Pushpagiri Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Center addressed the students and faculty of Amrita School of Biotechnology on January 20th 2015. His talk was titled “Vascular Endothelial Cells Apoptosis in Diabetic Retinopathy.” The talk was on the work done by Dr. Maneesh and his team on Diabetic Retinopathy & Apoptosis.
Diabetes is a condition of high glucose level in blood. Diabetic retinopathy is a pathological condition of retina which can be due to vasculopathy or neuropathy. Dr. Maneesh’s study focused on vasculopathy, where in the cells undergo apoptosis. The study further explains the role played by kynurenine pathway in inducing retinal endothelial cell apoptosis. In diabetic patients, high serum glucose level results in increased levels of inflammatory cytokines, which in turn increase the expression of one of the regulatory enzyme in the kynurenine pathway, Indoleamine 2, 3-dioxygenase (IDO), in particular IDO1 isoform. This produces more 3-hydroxykynurenine which can modify and inactivate the protein and also form spontaneous free radicals there by resulting in apoptosis. Furthermore, the high glucose level in endothelial cells can increase the Interferon Gamma (IFNγ) which in turn activates JAK-STAT pathway and the PKC cell signalling that further lead to increased IDO1 expression and thus cause apoptosis.
